Crossing circuit malfunctions and leftover derailment slow orders put ended up putting us 1 hour and 40 minutes behind into Cincinnati. “Now the real question is can I think of a reason to go to West Virginia?”, “You know, that might actually be possible…”. At the other end of the line, Chicago departures are 5:45 p.m. Chicago is in Central Time Zone, one hour off from the other cities on the route, The Cardinal is popular in the fall with the autumn colors, so be sure to book roomettes in advance if that’s your preferred accommodation type, Slower going eastbound as there tends to be delays due to freight rail, Staunton, VA (birthplace of Woodrow Wilson). Superliner Equipment. When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Eastern United States. Because it serves a corridor that has never been particularly busy the train only provides tri-weekly service currently and sometimes features a consist … The Weirdly Wonderful Seneca Wallace Small Talk Chit Chat Talkin' Topics Thread - Page 2684 - Blowout Cards Forums, CSX #8888: The Real Story of “Unstoppable”. Only Amtrak stations are … This site has no affiliation with and is not endorsed by the National Rail Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) or any other company. On my third trip east from Cincinnati the route of the C&O has come no where near routine. View the Amtrak timetable for the Cardinal to plan your trip. Bill-- We are not affiliated with Amtrak.com. “White Christmas” movie: History behind the passenger trains. Please help support this website by becoming a TrainWeb Patron for just $5 per month. Farmland, rolling hills, historic small towns, rivers and mountains stretch between two of America’s largest cities. On October 31, 1976 Amtrak again inaugurated a train between Baltimore/Washington and Cincinnati known as the Shenandoah. “There are going to be Superliners on the Cardinal tonight. TripAdvisor reviewers note: All Amtrak RoutesAmtrak travel: 5 things to know7 top attractions along the Cardinal route. Amtrak system map, 1971. Amtrak basically continued the Santa Fe Super Chief in 1971. AMT CARD VERT 0617 We chatted with a nice older later who lived on a nearby mountaintop. Major service stops outside the Northeast Corridor include Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Charlotte, N.C.. On board, enjoy new flexible dining service for sleeper car passengers as well as a cafe. The way they have been operating is with the Hoosier State consist ahead of the Cardinal consist. On the other four days, it ran on its own to Chicago. Amtrak and their crews deserve credit for getting the line back in service in some form just a few days after the reopening of the CSX mainline. Amtrak bills the Cardinal's route as one of the most scenic in its system. Today, coach was “much more crowded than it used to be” and she couldn’t stand sleeping back there. From Cincinnati passengers had the opportunity to catch a connecting train to Chicago via the James Whitcomb Riley/Mountaineer, later renamed the Cardinal in 1977 and operated to Newport News, Virginia. Thus began the game of musical railcars. I'd appreciate any . Cars with two levels used primarily on Western US trains. There were few regrets when it came to this spur-of-the-moment trip. Photographs, travelogues, accommodations, and other information about train travel on the Amtrak Cardinal route. Amtrak P42DC #83 has the westbound "Cardinal" at the former Chesapeake & Ohio's depot in Alderson, West Virginia on May 11, 2012. She had booked the Cardinal’s sleeper to Chicago where she planned to transfer to the Southwest Chief and visit her kids in Los Angeles. Amtrak accepts major payment cards. The Cardinal Amtrak route travels between New York and Chicago (through DC) three times each week. The Cardinal operates between New York and Chicago, offering unforgettable views of the Southeast's stunning natural beauty. The Cardinal normally runs as follows: F40 2 Superliner Coaches Sightseer Lounge 1 Superliner Sleeper. The only thing missing was a Sightseer Lounge in the consist. While I have no problem matching train length to demand, someone in this scenario seriously screwed up. On December 17, 1999, Amtrak initiated the Kentucky Cardinal, a new route between Indianapolis and Jeffersonville, Indiana (across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky). Route overview. Route overview. A Superliner Sleeper and the Diner Lounge car provided room and food service for the handful of sleeper passengers. Only two Amfleet-II coaches were provided, and the train was seriously oversold. Without going into super detail the consist was the same as the Santa Fe combined Super Chief/El Capitan. So Saturday’s train #50 became the first Amtrak train to traverse the line in over two weeks. A legutolsó pénzügyi évben összesen 108 935 utas utazott a járaton, naponta átlagosan 298 utasa volt.. Irodalom. Click here for more info. The first coach was for people going all of the way to the east coast – anywhere from Alexandria, Virginia all the way to New York’s Penn Station. Several on the passenger we spoke with had been on previous trains that were annulled, with the travel plans being flexible enough or their options limited enough to wait for the line to reopen. As a result, its route was truncated to end in Washington D.C.; then, as now, S… The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Amtrak, or any other organization. We considered Clifton Forge long and hard, as we would be able to visit the C&O Historical Society. When Amtrak had and used amfleet cars, what was a general consist of coaches, food service cars, and sleeping cars, for a normal size scheduled train? The Cardinal could either then platform across the main track via duckboards or have a new crossover installed on the NS line. This car has both sleeper rooms for passengers on the upper level and sleeper rooms for the crew. Amtrak has been running the Cardinal since 1977. Loyd Lowry photo. View the Amtrak timetable for the Cardinal to plan your trip. Though in her younger days she was more inclined to ride coach. It was just as well. Several hours and one visit to Amtrak.com later, I was on my way to Cincinnati Union Terminal and seriously questioning my sanity. Things to know: As one writer put it, The Cardinal Is One of Amtrak’s Most Scenic Rides, especially with its journey through the New River Gorge and Shanandoah Valley in the eastern part of the route. The Cardinal consist had three coaches and it appeared that the conductors were sorting people on each car depending on their destination. However, passengers ticketed from Cincinnati to points east of Cincinnati were out of luck, with Amtrak providing “No Alternative Transportation”. You will of course need to use a siding to re sort the consist. The Crescent is a thrice-weekly long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak in the eastern United States.It operates 1,377 miles (2,216 km) daily between Pennsylvania Station in New York City and Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans as train numbers 19 and 20. Any product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks or images featured or referred to within the website (Rare-Mileage.com) and/or on any social media forum are the property of their respective trademark holders. The rest of the trip west was not the pinnacle of efficiency. The passengers on board did not help the situation. The Cardinal's current typical consist is a single locomotive, a Viewliner baggage car, one or two Viewliner sleeping cars, two to four Amfleet II long-distance coaches, and a single Amfleet diner-lounge car. A Cardinal egy vasúti járat az USA-ban.Az Amtrak üzemelteti 1971. május 1. óta. Dressed like a trio that had spent 10 hours on a train in coach, we passed on the Greenbrier’s elegance and ate at a small downtown restaurant called the Mason Jar. The dining car was serving dinner (and was full) a couple hours before arriving in Washington, on time. Add Amtrak’s lone dome car, the Ocean View, to the Cardinal consist on a seasonal basis: This was implemented in the fall of 2010 and 2011, but has not been done the last two years, for unknown reasons. Chicago is in Central Time Zone, one hour off from the other cities on the route Amtrak Cardinal - Washington, New River Gorge, Chicago. I got a reasonable C&O survey with a front positioned sleeper in 2006 and from the back of the Indy coaches last year. Date of experience: June 2016. Things to know: 1. Mike Schafer, Amtrak's atlas, Trains June 1991 Schwieterman, Joseph P.. With the Cardinal’s trainset scattered to the wind, Amtrak’s Chicago Coach Yard put together a consist of spare Superliner equipment. Well that's good news for anyone wanting good pics from the Cardinal without having the shell out the $400 bux for a sleeper. In general the train was heavily staffed, with 2 people in the dinner more than the typical train 50. Transition Sleeper. Luckily no one was injured, but the line was closed until February 26th for the extensive cleanup and investigation. Two coaches were more than enough to handle the crowds, with only one being opened as far east as Charleston. She claimed to have been taking the train for over twenty years and had the NARP. Thus it had Hi-Levels and single level cars. On the nights the Cardinal had been scheduled, a bus ran from CUT to Indianapolis and connected with a short Hoosier-state like train. ; Last updated Sunday, 28-Feb-2021 08:56:05 PST. It was another first for me, and I had the three-egg omelet. Amtrak New York Bound Cardinal Train 50, departing Staunton Station. You'll see gently rolling horse country, the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, and the wild white-water rivers … In the early 1990s, the Cardinal ran with the usual Amtrak long-distance consist of two F40s/E60 plus several material handling cars (MHC) and baggage cars, followed by several Amfleet coaches, an Amfleet lounge, a Heritage diner, two or three Heritage 10-6 sleepers, a slumbercoach, and finally, a baggage dormitory car. Is Grand Central the same as Penn Station? Initially I was sceptical of the claimed improvements versus the standard single-liner. We should go watch it come through.” For some time it was unclear exactly when the Cardinal would run again. External Links. I finally dozed off somewhere around Maysville and slept until Russel. Several tank cars went into the river. Passengers we spoke to mentioned some freight congestion near Orange. With the Cardinal’s trainset scattered to the wind, Amtrak’s Chicago Coach Yard put together a consist of spare Superliner equipment. During the summer travel season they generally add an extra coach and sleeper. It was an impressive train. Combine the Capitol Limited and Pennsylvanian west of Pittsburgh: No word on whether this idea is still being actively pursued. Two color printed paper system map from 1971. Tom even mentioned that the other ticket agent has baked a treat for the train crew, provided “that they stay on time.” The Cardinal's current typical consist includes a single locomotive, three Amfleet II long-distance coaches, a single Amfleet II Diner-Lite diner-lounge car, one or two Viewliner I sleeping cars, and a Viewliner II baggage-dorm car. This equipment had been freed up from the shortened winter consists that had been running on the western long-distance trains. I sat transfixed by the light until well past the I-275 bridges. I rode a Cardinal consist like this in January 86 (I think). Following the delivery of the SuperlinerII fleet, however, the Cardinal was re-equipped with Superliner cars in 1995. 6 Thank Douglas M . The Cardinal is a three times weekly Long Distance train between New York City and Chicago by way of Washington, DC, Charlottesville, Huntington, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Nothing short of a true dome would provide a better view on the Cardinal’s route. With the Cardinal's engine in the middle. There had been some debate within my group on just how far we could take the Cardinal east and still be able to make it back the same day. With that, and depending on maintanence schedules, there could be up to 40 racks on a train at peak periods. With two feet of snow on the ground, the resort town was clearly in summer hibernation. The fresh blanket of snow reflected much more light in the darkness. You can also view current schedules via Google Maps or when booking your tickets. I had never been on Amtrak’s Superliner equipment before. The ticket agents were in good spirits at Union Terminal. Around 8 AM we decided to splurge and ate breakfast in the dinner. The Kentucky Cardinal was a nightly 312-mile (502 km) passenger train operated by Amtrak from 1999 to 2003 between Chicago, Illinois, and Louisville, Kentucky, via Indianapolis, Indiana.On the three days that the Cardinal ran, the Kentucky Cardinal operated as a section, splitting at Indianapolis. Four Superliner cars had made the journey. The Cardinal usually runs with three, and it would have required no additional staffing. We arrived in White Sulphur Springs 2 hours and 4 minutes late thanks to a frozen switch between there and Alderson. < consist for the Capitol Limited coming out of Union Station in DC. While we ate we were the only patrons in the dinner, and the service was quality without going above and beyond. No doubt there can be variances in the number of both sleepers and coaches on the train. The foreward to this story truly began on February 16th. CSX ran into a number of issues due to the freezing and thawing weather. This equipment had been freed up from the shortened winter consists that had been running on the western long-distance trains. Over the mountains and through woods and farm fields, Amtrak’s Cardinal trains provide a journey across the eastern United States. So if the lead engine got smacked, you still have the Cardinal's engine behind. At the other end of the line, Chicago departures are 5:45 p.m. 3. With the help of her neighbor and a sled, she had braved her two mile driveway to reach the bottom and her parked car. Amtraks Cardinal pulls into its first station stop out of Chicago about 10 minutes late and no time to talk to the crew except a quick hello. Things were beginning to get a bit chilly as the sun set and we waited for a late-arriving train 51. Amtrak Guide aims to make rail travel easier with helpful information and tips on train routes and stations across the United States. On the Cardinal what type of cars are used in addition to the amfleet coaches, for food service and sleeping accommodations? There were several groups near us who left their manners on the East Coast, and one person who insisted on carrying on a cell phone conversation between the hours of 2 and 3 in the morning. In the early 1990s, the Cardinal ran with the usual Amtrak long-distance consist of two F40s/E60 plus several MHC and material handling baggage cars, followed by several Amfleet coaches, an Amfleet lounge, a Heritage diner, two or three Heritage 10-6 sleepers, a … Amtrak is a registered service mark of the National Passenger Corporation. The Cardinal's route is one of the most scenic in Amtrak's system. The schedule listed Staunton as the last station stop before the meet. It was not a moment too soon, as a chill had descended on the platform along with the setting sun. A Novak consist, recorded at New York City. You can also view current schedules via Google Mapsor when booking your tickets. Amtrak Car Diagrams. While the Superliner equipped Cardinal had plenty of space, Amtrak was woefully under-prepared for the train that went back west for the first time in two weeks. But expecting to be on time after a derailment in winter and on the Cardinal no less meant that was not an option. She did wish that “there were more trains available” and found no disagreements from the rest of our group. That was how it all began. These minor complaints do not take away from an otherwise fine trip. Yet the ride quality was noticably improved, and the windows provided a spectacular view of the always-scenic New River Gorge. There are at least two other variations of this car, but they are all similar. Amtrak Cardinal Route Page; Wikipedia Route Page; Amtrak Status Maps on Dixeland Software site. Note: Cardinal does not stop at the stations in parentheses ( ). Now, with an available upgrade to Business class, it is an even more comfortable way to travel from New York to Chicago, via Washington; White Sulphur Springs, Va.; Cincinnati and Indianapolis, effective Jan. 19 and 20. CHICAGO — The Cardinal (Trains 50 & 51) has long been known as one of the most scenic routes on the national Amtrak network. Subsequent to this accident, Amtrak acquired 80 new AutoRack cars and retired the old rack cars. That day, a loaded CSX crude oil train derailed on the New River Subdivision near Mount Carbon, West Virginia. Things had been slow without the train running, and dealing with stranded passengers is never fun. Ask Douglas M about Amtrak. Fires started during the crash also lead to several explosions and an impressive fireball. I wonder how difficult it would have been to find an extra coach somewhere in the northeast. The Amtrak Cardinal is a long-distance passenger rail service from New York to Chicago, connecting a total of 30 cities.Other major stops on the Cardinal's 255 city-to-city routes include Washington, DC, Charlottesville, and Indianapolis.The Cardinal is part of the Amtrak network, the largest passenger rail service in the United States. As such, Amtrak had used its single level equipment to protect the Lake Shore Limited, which had run into its own delays due to bad winter weather. The food was adequate but overprice, which perfectly met my expectations for Amtrak’s meals. The coach attendant did his best, but you could tell how stressed he was space for every party on board. Please retain your receipt for all returns, refunds and exchanges. I'd < also be interested in the Cardinal too, if possible. This is one of the scenic trips in the Eastern United States, When traveling from New York or Washington to Chicago, this is a worthwhile alternative. At 3:28 AM, just 11 minutes late, Train #50 pulled into CIN in double-decker glory. We were able to photograph a few CSX trains at the depot, and then viewed the Greenbrier and walked to town. #51 Cardinal July 19 1987 1611 bag-dorm 2893 sleeper 10-6 2450 sleeper 10-6 8502 diner 3113 lounge 4010 coach 4619 coach 4000 coach 4613 coach 4608 coach 4615 coach 21022 coach Trains depart early from New York’s Penn Station(around 6 a.m.) 2. The Cardinal Is One of Amtrak’s Most Scenic Rides, Philadelphia, PA – 30th Street Station (PHL), 7 top attractions along the Cardinal route, Amtrak roomette vs bedroom vs bedroom suites, Riding Amtrak between Florida and California. In the end however, we aired on the side of caution and decided to visit White Sulphur Springs and the Greenbrier Resort. My friend mentioned that while the dinner had been upgraded, the menu was still the limited fare that was common on the Cardinal. If you’re planning a trip on the Cardinal or are looking for a new adventure, explore the list below to learn about some of the top things attractions walking distance of stations along the route. The more and more I ride in a Amfleets, the more I understand what the critics are saying. The same consist was used and also the same Warbonnet F units (for the most part) were kept. If you paid by cash or payment card and did not receive a receipt, your purchase is complimentary. Such a change would probably cut 20-30 minutes off the trip and also alleviate issues with meets as the E/B and W/B cardinal often cross paths east of Charlottesville. Final Run of the Amtrak Kentucky Cardinal July 5 - 7, 2003 By Matt Melzer of TrainWeb.com. One short snowball fight later, train #51 arrived about an hour late. I am trying to model the era where amfleet cars were the norm.